I think there are some major differences between Facebook and most other social networking platforms. Facebook has become so much more personal and friend-oriented then anything else, which is why there is stronger emotion around being “defriended” on Facebook as opposed to someone “unfollowing” you on Twitter.

I would recommend using a Facebook profile for only close friends so you dont have to worry about different sharing permissions for different people. If you are using Facebook for a business then you should be using a Facebook Fan Page instead of a profile. Then you can easily seperate personal “friends” from “fans”, who are really the equivalent of “followers”.

A “follower” is a person that is not emotional important to you, but a “friend” is. It all depends on the language used by the site which builds the culture around how the site builds its userbase.

If you are using a social network that specifically uses the term “friend”. Use with caution because emotions will be involved.

Posted via web from media maniac | Comment »